Page 30 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
I’ll do better.
Yes, that’s it.
That’s what I’ve decided. I’ll be a better person so I can stay with her. I close my eyes and slowly fall into my dormant state. I inhale her scent deep into my lungs, wishing I can imprison it there. If light and life have a scent, this is it. It’s her. I love feeling her close to my chest, close to my heart.
My blood runs cold when I feel her move beneath me. Rhianelle slowly slips from my arms and slides out of bed.
What the fuck? She’s awake…?
Fear like I’ve never felt in my existence seizes me. I listen to the pounding of her heart. This calm and regular beat…
I fucking forgot… Rhianelle has a baseline heart rate of sixty beats per minutes. It’s near fatal and too damn low for a human, let alone an elf. But earlier her heart rhythm paced nearly to a hundred.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
There’s a huge possibility she wasn’t even sleeping from the start. I should have known something was off the moment I saw the bed was made and properly tucked. Rhianelle usually hogs the blanket and bundles herself in a cocoon every night.
Why didn’t I consider any of this?
I am eternally fucked.
The things I said earlier… she heard it all. Now she knows I’m a fucking creep who crawls into her bed and holds her without permission every night. All my plans to win her back crumble into ashes.
I’m a fool.
I’ve fucking ruined it…
My heart drops to the deepest goddamn hell hole. I can’t move a single muscle. The least terrible outcome is that there might be an even bigger rift between us. The worst would be for her to tell me to go away forever.
Let me go, Svenn.
Those words nearly killed me earlier. Maybe this time it’ll finally finish the job.
I wait for her to confront me.
But Rhianelle is taking a sweet and agonizing time to do it.
I keep my eyes closed, but the rest of my senses remain acute to whatever she does. I hear the clanking of the water pitcher, the sound of her graceful swallow, the padding of her feet across the room.
What is she doing? Why isn’t she saying anything?
I narrow my eyes a little to peek at whatever the odd girl is doing. Rhianelle makes a trip to the dresser to fix her hair. Once she is satisfied, she returns to the bed again.
Shit.
I snap my eyes shut quickly.
I can feel her sharp gaze on me, checking to see if I’m asleep… I remain still, keeping my breathing even. Seconds turn into minutes until a small eternity passes.
The bed shifts with her weight once again. And just like that, the girl tucks herself comfortably into my arms as silently as she left.
What?
Her fingers move on the skin of my arm, tracing invisible markings. At first I thought she’s writing one of her recipes, but Nel is just signing her name over and over on my skin.
Heat prickles on my skin, sending pulsating waves of desire into every nerve. I feel all that from her touching my arm. Devil help me when she touches my cock.
But I’m forgetting the most important thing here.
